


During

by yourfearlessleader



Series: Before, During, and After [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Death, Light Bondage, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Pining, Unresolved Sexual Tension, set during the events of the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-28 02:42:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18202436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourfearlessleader/pseuds/yourfearlessleader
Summary: During is, for lack of a better word, hard.





	During

**Author's Note:**

> short companion piece to Before and After, I felt that it needed a middle part to complete it so excuse the half-bakedness, I'm rubbish at ending things
> 
> set during the events of the show, little self-reflections on what happens and a remixed UST scene where Diego ties Klaus up

 

 

 

During is, for lack of a better word, hard. During is a freight train hurtling forward that Klaus doesn’t realise will hit him until it does. And though he tries, he still finds himself broken down and once more shaped into something new.

 

-

It starts, like always, with Dad. Klaus presses his goodbye palm against the window of the bus as it nears the stop by the house. It hasn't changed one bit, same bricks, same iron fencing, same stupid plaque on the wall.

Dad being dead should make things feel different, the world should have stopped, the sky opened up, hellfire raining and everybody screaming. He steps off the bus. Nothing has changed, and neither has Klaus. 

Make the best of a bad situation, he thinks as he climbs through an open window into the back of the mansion, and that's what he does.

 

Until he sees Diego.

 

He freezes. They're both in the house, together again, and if Klaus squints he can almost see them 15 years ago, young and stupid and so afraid of being alone. The house still even smells the same, the must of Reginald Hargreeves' old but very expensive shit, and Mom's sweet perfume, the same one that Diego had bought for her when they were 10, dancing in the air down the hall toward the kitchen where smiley face pancakes await.

 

It's always strange to see Diego now, hardened and brittle and wrapped up in what Klaus notes is very clearly fetish gear. They've passed each other before of course, not difficult when you're both creatures of the night, but Klaus never quite gets used to the difference, knowing from experience, that people still look the same even when they’re dead.

 

It throws him for a moment, the onslaught of memories, like blind hands through the thick fog of inebriation, tugging and loosening something buried very, very deep down inside.

 

-

 

For a while, it seems that during is going to be more of the same, Klaus tripping in and out of the house, getting drunk and high and stealing things that are probably, technically partly his, considering their father is dead. It's like being a teenager again and Klaus can't shake the feeling of mild deja vu when he wraps a long fingered hand around Diego's doorframe.

 

'Knock knock,' he slurs, even though he's trying very hard not to. Diego probably wont go for it if he knows Klaus is too fucked up, but Klaus never can muster the courage to do anything important unless he is.

He tries to focus, there's an anxious swarm of bees in his skull and he feels overheated from just being near Diego. He cocks his hip and bites his lip, aiming for what he knows is coy and inviting.

 

'Not now, Klaus.'

 

Diego doesn't even look at him, busy packing his gear, getting ready to go out as the night falls. Klaus sighs loud and put upon, he crosses his arms and leans against the open door.

 

' _Not now, Klaus, not now, Klaus. The world is ending, Klaus. Pretend to be my dad, Klaus_ ,’ he singsongs in a shitty voice.

 

Diego turns to him then, even after all these years still fine tuned to the frequency of Klaus' emotions.

 

'You look tired. You should sleep.'

 

'Ah, you know me, Diego. Too much going on up here to sleep.' He gestures wildly around his head and then also at the empty space behind him. Then he turns to address a bit of the space.

 

'No, not you. The others. Little bastards think I cant see them, but I can!' Klaus shouts down the corridor, scattering the black shadows skirting on the edge of his vision. They’re not quite ghosts, Klaus isn’t completely sure what they are, only that they are persistent enough to come through even when Klaus is high as a fucking kite.

 

Diego's frowning at him when his attention comes back. Klaus tries to hold Diego's eye but the room is beginning to swim so maybe he is a bit too fucked up to be trying a grand reconciliation with his brother right now.

 

'You can sleep in here if you want to.'

 

Klaus looks at the bed. A funny pang of feeling bubbles up underneath his high.

 

'It took me a long time to be able to get off to sleep without you,’ Diego admits quietly, surprising Klaus with his left field honesty. Something about being in this house again tears down everything they’ve built up.

 

Klaus snorts, deflecting. 'It took me a long time to be able to get off without you.'

 

Diego catches his eye, sharp, his mouth turns. 'That's not funny, Klaus.'

 

'Isn't it? I do still have a little trouble now and then, I'm surprised you've never mentioned how often your ears must be burning.'

 

'What-?'

 

Klaus knows he should stop talking, knows that somehow he might regret this, but between the drugs and the panic he physically can’t, the words tumbling out in a mess anyway.

 

‘I might have called out your name once or twice… during… with others. And then I have to explain that no, it's okay, he's just my brother. And then, I have to explain _that_ kettle of fish, so it's just a whole big thing.'

 

Diego’s face seems torn between shock and rage. Klaus knows the look well, he manages to elicit it so easily from everyone he talks to. He shoves his hands in his back pockets, bowing his head slightly in contrition.

 

‘I don’t tell them, Diego. I don’t tell anyone anything.’

 

This has turned more sad than Klaus wanted it to, he’s not really sure what it is that he actually wants from Diego now, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. Things usually do when you’re high.

 

Diego’s eyes on him are hard but understanding. He swings up his bag and puts a hand on Klaus’ shoulder when he gets to the doorway. Klaus focuses on it, seeping warmth like a brand on his bare skin. His animal brain wants to put Diego's fingers in his mouth. He licks his lips thinking about it, but Diego squeezes out past him and leaves.

 

'Idiot,' Ben says softly. 

 

Klaus waves away his pity, hates pity, he's stronger than that, and crashes face first onto Diego's bed. Maybe he is a little tired, maybe it’s better that Diego has gone.

He gathers up the pillow to breathe in his brother's smell, getting dizzy because of it. It's making him hard, his body still conditioned to react even after all these years. He begins a slow drag of his hips against the mattress, which is smaller than he remembers, his feet now catching over the end. It's so familiar, so easy, sinking into Diego's bed and getting off before he falls asleep. All he needs now is Diego pressed to his back, humping his leg, and it would be like no time had passed at all. Klaus stills and comes in his fake leather pants, biting a cry into the pillow, and immediately passes out.

 

-

 

He only jerks off once while he's in the house. Okay, liar, he does it twice. That time in Diego's bed, and then the time in the shower when everything is too hot and slippery to be ignored. Klaus likes to glut in sensation sometimes, so he rides the pleasant buzz he's got on for now, rides it and rides it until he's riding his own fingers, gasping up against the bathroom tile. It's hard not to think about Diego considering the circumstances, the proximity, the memories, the impending sense of doom, etcetera. He comes with Diego's name on his lips, wraps his hair up in a towel, and then the freight train hits.

 

So what he gets kidnapped, who doesn't these days? So what he gets tortured? That's an average Saturday night for Klaus. So what he goes to war? Klaus can endure, clinging to life like a cockroach in hell, just like always.

But Dave? That guts Klaus like nothing ever has before, and its impossible to even think about finding the best in that shitty fuck of a situation.

 

When he comes back to the present, Klaus cries like a damn has been opened. He shakes and sobs with grief and devastation and sickening, sickening relief. It's like blood finally gushing from a stone, it pours out of Klaus as he keels on the ground, the dirt of another country still beneath his fingers, the phantom of Dave's body behind his eyelids every time he blinks.

 

And the strangest part is, it's like it never even happened, he's back where he left off and nobody knows any different. Klaus keeps touching his tattoo, going over and over everything in his mind even though it makes him sick to his stomach. He goes to see their picture in the vet hall to prove to himself that it was real, and he wants, immediately, more than he's ever wanted anything before.

 

-

 

'If i see a boner, I'm leaving.'

 

'Thats not what you said last time,' Klaus says distractedly, struggling against the bonds around his wrists. He wants this to work, doesn't know what he'll do if he can't- he shakes his head, not wanting to finish that thought. Klaus will see Dave again, even if it kills him.

 

Diego ties him up as best as he can with one properly functioning arm, digging the rope in every now and then because it's a bit satisfying hearing Klaus' hisses of pain.

 

He yelps when Diego catches his skin in a rough knot and rolls his hips down in the chair, breathing deeply. Diego watches the shudder run through Klaus' whole body.

 

'You're giving me mixed signals here, Diego. Did you want to see a boner or not?'

 

'Such a freak,' Diego mutters, tying up the final knot by Klaus' ankles.

 

'Ain't that the truth,' Klaus sighs, and gives a final squirm to test the give of Diego's work.

 

He's definitely, unfortunately, rock hard now. Being trussed up all tight always gets him going, and seeing Diego on his knees before him certainly isn't helping. And obviously, Diego notices, practically eye level with the bulge in Klaus' tight pants, and grimly meets his eye.

 

'Hell no.'

 

Klaus drops his head back and lets out a long, frustrated moan.

 

'Oh please,' he whines. 'Just quickly, just help me sort this and I'll be good to go, you'll be free to go vigilante-ing about to your little heart's content.'

 

Diego gets up. 'I'm not doing this again. Do you want me to untie you?'

 

'No! It'd be such a waste of good knotsmanship,' he says regretfully.

 

'You are unbelievable, you know that?'

 

Klaus shakes himself in the chair.

'Fine, OK, O-kay. Mind over matter, that's what they say isn't it.'

 

He shuts his eyes in concentration, but Diego can tell straight away that it's making things worse. Klaus is starting to sweat and there's the beginning vibrations of a moan starting low in the back of his throat. Diego doesn't know why he's still watching.

 

'They would call this edging,' Klaus says evenly, eyes remaining tightly closed. Then he sighs. 'Its funny, this isn't even supposed to be about this.'

 

'I know,' Diego tells him softly. Because he knows what this is really about, knows why Klaus wants to get sober this time, but he also knows that his brother is an awful tangled mess of mixed messages and crossed wires.

 

'Do you remember last time?' Diego finds himself asking, almost too quietly for Klaus to catch.

 

Klaus looks Diego in the eye, surprised. He didn't think he'd bring it up.

 

Diego continues. 'I remember that you were out of your mind that night. You told me that you were "done with all that shit". D'you remember why?'

 

'You were leaving and I wanted to tag along like I always do.' Klaus laughs a little sadly. 'You said I wasn't fit to go anywhere, called me a liability. Sounded a hell of a lot like Dad actually.'

 

'I tried to help though. I tied you up, just like this.'

 

Klaus sighs dreamily. 'Yeah. And then I got hard, and you got angry, and then you slapped me and it made me come.'

 

Diego's face heats over how bluntly he says it, reliving vividly how fucked up the situation was but how horribly hard it made him afterwards. But Klaus carries on regardless, down the rabbit hole of memory.

 

'You used to do that a lot to be fair.  _Klaus, I want to play cowboys and Indians. Klaus, it's your turn to be the hostage. Klaus, please let me practice my knots_ ,' he mimics in a silly voice.

 

Diego pulls a face. 'That was different.'

 

'Not to me,' Klaus chuckles. 'It all adds up. That, and the uh whole...'

 

He jerks his head around to indicate his neck.

 

That's true. Diego remembers choking Klaus out quite often during wrestling matches when they were younger, and trying to shut him up physically when Klaus got too annoying. With a blush, he also remembers when they got older and he had to make Klaus be quiet because of /other/ reasons. Diego feels the guilt surging up like a wave.

 

'Sorry.'

 

'Don't be, I liked it. Some might say a little too much.'

 

Klaus makes it sound very wink, wink, nudge, nugde, but Diego senses the sentiment underneath.

 

He makes an aborted start forward. 'I can uh... If you want?'

 

He gestures at Klaus' crotch, the tips of his ears flaming. 

Klaus laughs.

 

'Oh bless you. But there's no point. Talking about it has quite the opposite effect on me. I'm more of a spur-of-the-moment kinda guy.’

 

Diego wants to throttle him, hating that Klaus would actually enjoy that.

 

'Right, okay then,' he bites, grinding his teeth and feeling like a class idiot, and makes to leave.

 

Klaus catches his eye at the door.

 

'Maybe next time though? If this doesn't work out obviously.'

 

He says it jokingly, waggling his eyebrows, but there's a hopefulness underneath that Diego feels weirdly nervous about. He feels shy, like Klaus is courting him. Maybe he is.

 

'Yeah maybe,' Diego says quickly, and goes before Klaus can say anything more.

 

In the end, it doesn't matter anyway, Five falls through time from somewhere else, crash landing them all into a different chain of events. And then the apocalypse happens.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> as I said, really bad at endings...
> 
> well that's all I had left for this little venture <3
> 
> I am writing something a little more long form and slow burn based on what could happen after the finale of season one so keep an eye out for it if you want :p


End file.
